Full Throttle & Wrong Bride, Right Groom

by Merline Lovelace

  “Good ride, Captain.” The C-130’s pilot pumped his hand. “You really put that baby through his paces.”

  The navigator, who had evidently flown with Dave before, pounded him on the back. “Sierra Hotel, Scott.”

  Kate hid a smile at the aviators’ universal shorthand for shit hot, but her congratulations were every bit as sincere.

  “You did good, Captain.”

  “Thanks, Commander.” The tanned skin beside his eyes crinkled. The glint in their blue depths was intended for her alone. “How about we get together later this evening and review the flight-test data?”

  With the thrill of success still singing in her veins, Kate had to force herself to remember Alma. And Denise. And who knew how many other women this man had charmed with that same wicked glint. Keeping an easy smile on her face, she sidestepped the invitation.

  “I have a feeling Captain Westfall will want to pore over every bit of data right here, right now.”

  She was right. They spent the next three hours reviewing every phase of the flight and analyzing instrument readings. Captain Westfall was particularly concerned about the vibration and asked the engineers to examine every inch of the tail section before the next flight, scheduled for the following Thursday.

  That was only four days away. Barely enough time to make any changes or corrections in either the instrumentation or the body of the vehicle itself if necessary. Chewing on her lower lip, Kate gathered her stack of computer analyses and stuffed them in her three-ring binder for additional review tomorrow. From her experience during the land phase of testing, she knew the euphoria from the flight would have subsided by then and reality would set in with a vengeance.

  Dave and Russ were the first to arrive at the picnic table later that evening. Jill Bradshaw soon joined them. She’d spent the day racing across the desert in a souped-up Humvee, directing ground security for the flight. If Pegasus had gone down, she and her troops would have had to secure the crash site immediately. She was still in uniform and her cheeks showed a flush of red sun and windburn below the white patches made by her goggles.

  “You look like you could use a cool one,” Russ commented, pulling a beer from the ice chest.

  “I could. A long cool one.” She took the dripping can, popped the top and clinked it against Dave’s. “In all the hubbub this afternoon, I didn’t get to offer my congrats. Good flight, Scott.”

  “Thanks.”

  Caroline Dunn joined the group a few moments later, followed in short order by Doc Richardson and Captain Westfall. Isolated by the responsibility of command, Westfall didn’t often unbend enough to gather with his subordinates. Tonight marked a definite exception.

  Gradually, the tension that had held Dave in its grip since early morning slid off his shoulders. Just as gradually, a different kind of tension took hold.

  “Where’s Kate?” he asked Cari during a lull in the conversation.

  “At her computer. She said she wanted to review the latest reports from the solar observatory.”

  Dave nodded and tipped his beer, but it didn’t go down with quite the same gusto as it had before. Nor could he shake the urge to slip away from the crowd, rap on Kate’s door, and sweet-talk her into a private little victory celebration. He could almost feel her curves and valleys against his body. Taste her on his tongue. He didn’t realize his fist had tightened around the beer until the can crumpled and slopped cold liquid over his hand.

  “Damn!”

  Laughing, Cari passed him a paper napkin. “Good thing your hand was steadier this morning.”

  He gave the Coast Guard officer a sheepish grin and was about to reply, when her cell phone buzzed. Everyone on-site had been issued special instruments that picked up the signals from their personal phones and relayed them through a series of secure networks to the test site. Friends and relatives could still keep in touch, but no one would find any record of calls made to or from this particular corner of New Mexico.

  Flipping open the phone, Cari put it to her ear. “Lieutenant Dunn. Oh, hi, Jerry.”

  She listened a moment and a smile come into her eyes. “No kidding? I bet that was something to see.”

  Holding her hand over the mouthpiece, she excused herself from the group and walked a little way away.

  “Jerry again,” Jill muttered to Cody. “I wish the man would get a life.”

  Cody nodded. Russ McIver frowned into his beer. Obviously the only one in the dark, Dave voiced a question.

  “Who’s Jerry?”

  “A navy JAG,” Jill answered. “He calls Cari every few days.”

  Dave lifted an eyebrow. “Sounds serious.”

  “He’d like it to be.”

  “But?”

  Jill hesitated, obviously reluctant to discuss her friend’s personal life. Once again, Dave sensed he was still an outsider, that the rest of the group had yet to fully accept him into their tight little circle. It was left to Doc Richardson to fill in the gaps.

  “Commander Wharton has three kids by an ex-wife. Evidently he has some reservations about starting another family while he’s still on active duty.”

  Dave could understand that. He’d seen how tough it was for air force couples to juggle assignments and child care. Throwing long sea tours into the equation would make it even tougher.

  Russ McIver voiced the same reservations. “The guy has a point. Be hard to raise kids with one parent at sea and the other deployed to a forward area.”

  “I’ve seen it done,” Captain Westfall said calmly. “It takes a lot of compromise and a couple as devoted as they are determined.”

  Mac was too well trained to contradict his superior, but his disagreement showed on his face as he eyed the small, neat figure some yards away.

  The gathering broke up soon after that. Still too hyped from his flight, Dave wasn’t ready to hit the sack. The urge to rap on Kate’s door and coax her out into the night was still with him. He managed to contain it with the knowledge he’d have her to himself tomorrow morning when they went for their run.

  She didn’t show.

  Dave waited in the chilly dawn while reds and golds and pinks pinwheeled across the sky. Arms folded, hips propped against the fender of his pickup, he watched the glorious colors fade in the slowly brightening sun. They seemed to burn brighter and take longer to dissipate, just as the minutes seemed to drag by. Finally he shoved back the sleeve of his sweatshirt and checked his watch. If he pushed it, he’d have time to get in a quick five miles before breakfast and the round of postflight briefings scheduled for 0800.

  He worked up a solid sweat and a fierce hunger on the punishing run. A dark V patch arrowed down the front of his shirt. His drawstring sweatpants felt damp at the small of his back. Swiping his forearm over his face, Dave made for the dining hall. He’d scarf up some of the cook’s spicy Mexican scramble, hit the showers and track Kate down before the meeting to find out why she’d missed her run.

  He didn’t have to track far. She came out of the dining hall just as Dave was going in. He stopped, frowning as he took in the towel draped around the neck of her warm-up suit and the perspiration glistening on her cheeks and temples.

  “What’s going on? Did you change your exercise routine?”

  “It’s getting a little too cool in the mornings for me. I decided to use the treadmill in the gym instead.”

  “You could have told me about the change in plans. I waited a half hour for you.”

  “Sorry.”

  She looked anything but. Dave’s jaw tightened. He had received his share of brush-offs, but none of them had left him both angry and frustrated. Kate was doing a helluva job at both.

  “We need to talk about the other night,” he told her brusquely.

  “No, we don’t.”

  “C’mon, Kate. I’m not buying this on-site, hands-off crap. What’s the problem here?”

  She opened her mouth, shut it, then tried again.

  “The problem is me. I’ve discovered I can�
�t combine fun and work without one slopping over into the other. So one has to give.”

  “When did you make this big discovery?”

  “After talking to Alma.”

  “Who?”

  She stared at him for long moments. “Never mind. She’s not important. What’s important is Pegasus. That’s why we’re here, Dave. And that’s why the on-site, hands-off rule will stay in effect.”

  She issued the edict as if expecting him to snap to, whip up a salute and bark, “Yes, ma’am!”

  Dave wasn’t about to bark anything. Cocking his head, he weighed his options and chose the one he suspected she would least expect.

  “You don’t have to cut out your morning run. I’ll take mine in the evenings. In exchange, you stop treating me as though I’m some plebe at the academy who needs to be reminded of his purpose in life every hour on the hour.”

  Her startled expression had him shaking his head.

  “It’s called compromise, Hargrave. I give a little. You give a little. Before you know it, we’ve found a satisfactory solution to this problem we appear to have.”

  He left her at the door, feeling pretty smug. It was good to see her knocked off balance for a change. She’d sure as heck kept Dave flying a broken pattern almost from the day he’d arrived.

  He didn’t realize how broken until two nights later.

  The compromise he’d proposed wasn’t working. Not for him, anyway. He missed his early-morning runs with Kate and her collection of spandex. He even missed her officious tone when she’d tried to pull rank or put him in his place. All he got from the woman now were cool smiles and polite nods that left him edgy and frustrated and hungering for the fire he knew smoldered inside her.

  It took a call from his brother to open his eyes to the truth. Like Caroline’s JAG, Ryan was patched through a series of relay stations that gave him no clue where Dave was. Not that Ryan particularly cared. He was too used to his brother’s nomadic lifestyle—and on this particular occasion too drunk—to question his whereabouts.

  “Hey, bro,” he got out, the slur thick and heavy. “I thought I’d better call you and give you the news.”

  Dave propped himself up on an elbow and squinted at the bedside clock: 2:30 a.m. New Mexico time. Four-thirty back in Pennsylvania. Alarm skittered along his nerves. Ryan drunk was a rare occurrence. Ryan drunk and out all night had never happened before. Not to Dave’s knowledge.

  “What news, Ry?”

  “Jaci and me. We’re calling it quits.”

  “Aw, hell!”

  “That’s what I said. Right before I walked out.”

  Ryan burped, thunked the phone against something and cursed.

  “I couldn’t take it anymore,” he said a moment later. “I tried. The Lord knows, I tried.”

  “Yeah, you did. Where are you now?”

  “I’m at my office.”

  It figured. Over the years Ryan’s office had become more than a workplace or source of income. It had become his refuge, his retreat when the arguments got too heated and too hurtful. Struggling upright, Dave punched the pillow behind him and tried not to wince when a pitying whine crept into his brother’s voice.

  “I still love her. That’s the rotten part. I can’t imagine life without Jaci and the kids.”

  “So don’t imagine it.”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re drunk, Ry. You need to sleep this off, then go home and talk to your wife. See if you can’t work a compromise.”

  “What kind of compromise?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. Maybe if you spend a little less time at the office and a little more with Jaci and the kids, she’ll get off your back some.”

  “Thass what she says.”

  Another morose silence descended, interspersed with some heavy breathing.

  “Dave?”

  “I’m here.”

  “I’m drunk. I’m going to sleep it off.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Dave?”

  “What?”

  “Have you ever wanted a woman so bad you ached with it?”

  All the time, bro.

  His brain formed the flip reply, but the words stuck in his throat. The truth came out of the darkness and hit him smack in the gut.

  “As a matter of fact, Ry, I’m kind of in that situation now.”

  He waited for a response. All that came over the phone was a loud snore.

  “Ry! Hey, Ryan!”

  “Huh?”

  “Hang up the phone, man. Then get some sleep and talk with Jaci in the morning.”

  “Yeah.”

  The receiver banged down. Wincing, Dave flipped his cell phone shut and dropped it on the bedside table. He took a long time going back to sleep. Worry for his brother was a habit that went deep. Ryan and Jaci had been going at each other for a long time. Dave only hoped they’d find a way to patch things up.

  In the meantime, he had another problem to keep him awake. One that came packaged with flaming copper hair, a mouth made for kissing and a bone-deep stubborn streak.

  Here, alone in the dark, Dave could admit the truth. He ached for Kate. Physically and mentally. The feeling was as unsettling as it was unfamiliar.

  Hooking his hands behind his head, he stared up at the ceiling and tried to figure out when lust had slipped over into something deeper, something he wasn’t quite ready to put a name to yet.

  He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment, but to his surprise he suspected it had happened well before their weekend in Ruidoso. He’d wanted Kate in his bed, sure. He still wanted her in his bed. Looking back, though, he realized he’d come to crave her laughter and her company as much as her seriously gorgeous body.

  The realization had him scowling up into the darkness. Okay, he wanted Kate. All of her. Like he’d never wanted another woman. The problem now was what the hell to do about it.

  Chapter 9

  Dave made his move the next evening.

  The timing was iffy. The entire test cadre had been going full out for three days to analyze the data from the first flight and prepare for the second. The engineers hadn’t been able to pinpoint what caused the vibration in the tail section. With the second flight scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, Dave had insisted on more hours in the simulator to practice emergency responses to possible structural failures. By the time he climbed out around six that evening, he felt as though he’d been ridden hard and put away wet.

  A long shower and a hearty meal of steak and home fries revived him. So did the prospect of getting Kate alone for an hour. He caught her on her way back to Test Operations. Unlike Dave, she was still in uniform. The sky blue of her zippered flight suit formed a perfect foil for the fire of her hair.

  “I thought we were done for the day,” he commented, falling in beside her.

  “I thought so, too. But tomorrow’s flight is going to take you into the mountains and I want to review the wind patterns one more time. I wouldn’t want you to run into another katabatic wind,” she added, her lips curving.

  It was the first real smile Dave had received from her in days. He felt like a kid who’d just been handed a fistful of penny candy.

  “Trust me, I have no desire to get hit with another whammy like that one. Think it’s possible?”

  “Highly unlikely. The air temperatures at the higher altitudes are dropping significantly, but there’s no snow on the peaks yet. You could experience some severe downdrafts, though.”

  “I’m wondering if that’s all I’ll experience. Did you notice a greenish glow in the sky when you were running this morning?”

  She threw him a sharp look. “No.”

  “I saw it last night while I was running along the perimeter road. It was hanging low in the northern sky. I just caught a glimpse of it through the peaks.”

  “What time was that?”

  “About eight-forty.”

  Her eyebrows drew into a frown. “I didn’t see any reports of unusual light patterns on the weather sites t
his morning.”

  “The glow only lasted for a short while, maybe two or three minutes.”

  Dave wasn’t lying. Not exactly. He had noticed a dim glow, but it was more smoky than green. Anything could have caused it. A dust cloud thrown up by a passing vehicle. A low-hanging storm cloud scudding across the sky, lit from within by the moon. Given the recent reports of possible solar-flare activity, though, he’d figured Kate would want to check it out.

  Sure enough, she took the bait. Still frowning, she checked her watch. “It’s eight-fifteen now. Can you show me where you spotted this glow?”

  “I’ll get my truck and drive you out there. We should just make it.”

  The pickup jounced along the unmarked dirt track that served as the site’s perimeter road. Dave checked the odometer, squinted at the dark shapes to the north and pulled over.

  “This is about where I spotted the lights.” Leaning across Kate, he pointed to the jagged ridgeline. “Over there, through those peaks.”

  She reached for the door handle, but Dave stilled her with a quick warning. “We’d better notify Security before we climb out. We’re right on the perimeter. Their sensors are probably already flashing red alert.”

  All it took was a quick press of one key on his specially configured cell phone to connect him with Security Control.

  “This is Captain Scott. I’m out along the perimeter road, 3.2 miles into the northwest quadrant.”

  “We’ve got you on the screen, Captain Scott.”

  “Commander Hargrave is with me. We’re going to step out of our vehicle.”

  “We’ll track you. Watch where you walk. You don’t want to put your boot down in a nest of diamondbacks.”

  Dave didn’t take the warning lightly. He’d heard that one of Jill Bradshaw’s cops had done exactly that before he’d arrived on-site.